by Scott Todaro, Demandware Product Strategy

I recently purchased a shiny new iPhone 4. The first thing I noticed after I took the iPhone out of the box was the stunning 960x640 resolution display on the device. You actually couldn’t see the individual pixels on the 3.5 inch screen, it was that tight. It got me thinking about my laptop from 2001 and its 800x600 resolution on a 12” screen. Take a second to ponder that reality, the iPhone 4 has a better screen resolution than a device that was supposedly optimized for Web browsing and shopping only nine years ago.

Why is this significant? The answer is simple – the more pixels, the more content a retailer can get on a web page. The more content available to the consumer like product details, images and customer reviews, the better the shopping experience. The better the experience, the more likely the consumer will be enticed to make purchases from a mobile device. Even with the high resolution laptop screens available today, retailers still leverage features like zoom to improve conversion. Many mobile browsers offer the ability to zoom in on an image for more detail. As these rich website capabilities are transferred to the mobile devices, the willingness of consumers to transact should increase.

Below is an example comparing the sharpness of the web content on the iPhone 3Gs (1/4 the number pixels) to the iPhone 4G. There is an obvious advantage in clarity that the iPhone 4 owner enjoys over the 3Gs when viewing product images and text.

This retina pleasing trend does not end with the latest installment of the iPhone as almost all Google and Windows Mobile smartphones hitting the market today carry a minimum screen resolution of 800x480. I recently learned that the next release of the Google Android OS (codename Gingerbread) will accommodate resolutions of 1280X760 on devices with screens larger than 4 inches. When does it end?

Large high resolution screens or not, data shows that consumers are willing to shop on a mobile phone for non-digital items like apparel, health and beauty, sporting goods equipment, consumer electronics, and books. Forrester states that 2% of overall online revenue is coming from mobile devices at retailers that have live mobile storefronts or native mobile applications. For more Forrester data on mobile adoption and a mobile case study on Barney’s New York, download the recorded webinar.

by Scott Todaro, Demandware Product Strategy

I don’t know about you, but recently I have been doing a majority of my shopping through my mobile device. Apparently, I am not the only one since retailers are starting to see their mobile revenue reach as high as 5% of their overall online revenue (Forrester reports that it is between 2-3% on average depending on company size). Billions of people worldwide rarely leave their house without their mobile phones and, as a result, PC’s are slowly becoming passé. 

Even though the mobile browsing experience can be rewarding, the one step in the process most shoppers find tedious is checking out. To type in all of your billing and shipping information on a tiny on-screen keyboard is downright painful.  In order to improve the mobile shopping experience, especially as it pertains to checkout, it is no surprise that retailers are turning to PayPal and Amazon Payments for driving conversion on the mobile web.

PayPal, for instance, recently launched their mobile Express Checkout which offers online retailers a more direct and simplified payment process. For consumers shopping on iPhones, Blackberrys and Android devices, PayPal’s mobile express checkout provides an effortless payment experience. With the understanding that shopping on the go has become more common, PayPal’s payment process ensures less complication and frustration. According to PayPal, Mobile PayPal transactions keep increasing and the company expects to see $500 million in mobile transactions this year.

Although integrating payment solutions into your mobile storefront or native application can be time consuming, Demandware offers pre-built integration code and documentation to both PayPal Express Checkout and Amazon Mobile Payment free for all customers. Check-out the Demandware LINK Marketplace to learn more about other free integrations.

By Stephan Schambach, Demandware Founder & Executive Chairman

One of the most frequent "vision" questions I get from clients and industry experts alike is "Tell me about mobile ecommerce." Until recently, my answer was that I don't see any killer app from mobile commerce outside of ringtone downloads. But this was before the iPhone.

Before addressing the iPhone effect, I would like to share some hands-on experiences with mobile ecommerce. In 2000, when I was still running my last company (Intershop), we had several customers who experimented using WAP, or wireless application protocol. WAP, of course, is slow, text-only and the user experience wasn't engaging-it was barely tolerable. The consistency of the user experience between devices was, and still is, a major problem. As a result, the revenues realized through WAP were negligible and the cost of running this service more than eliminated margins on sold merchandise. Clearly, it was an idea whose time had not yet come. This has been my experience with countless other attempts by technology companies and startups-mobile ecommerce seemed to be applicable to only very narrow use cases such as ringtones, tickets and payments. The availability of GPRS, EDGE and HTML browsers on mobile phones did not change this at all.

With the advent of the iPhone, I believe the time for mobile ecommerce has come. We are looking at a perfect storm of mobile broadband availability, a shift in mobile customer behavior and the availability of the first user interface on a mobile device capable of delivering a stunning user experience beyond making calls. Let me address the individual points:

Mobile broadband availability: 3G (or UMTS as it's called in Europe) delivers data rates of up to 7.2 MBit/sec. This is as fast as your home cable or DSL modem. Forget WiMax; Wifi-like experience for mobile devices is coming to us from existing mobile operators who merely upgrade their transmission towers.

Change in mobile customer behavior: While mobile phone use was and still is the #1 application of a mobile device, it is quickly changing to the numerous modes of Internet communication-such as mobile email, chat, video, sharing pictures, listening to music and more. As these uses increase, a device's ability to access websites at high resolution and speed will be an important consideration. In other words, the phone function will be one of many features, but customers will-and often already do-expect more out of a mobile device.

Mobile user interface: Apple, for the first time, managed to crate a truly mobile user interface with the combination of a high-resolution touch screen and gestures. This is important because the type of visual interaction required to have a positive, exciting shopping experience is key to mobile ecommerce.

Price no longer a barrier to mass adoption: $199 for an iPhone, plus a monthly charge not significantly higher than other combined cell/data plans, will foster massive adoption.

Now, how will it work? Will the iPhone just be used as a browser to access existing ecommerce sites? I don't think so. I believe that purpose-built UIs for the iPhone and similar mobile devices will be much more exciting than simply compressing the pre-existing interface. I envision that the gesture-driven touch screen UI will be exploited to deliver a never-seen-before mobile and interactive experience. Some of these possibilities are already being exploited as the iTunes App Store now sells hundreds of applications to enhance functionality (eBay is already on board) utilizing all the iPhone gestures we know so well. This combination of convenience and user experience will make the difference and pave the way for true mobile ecommerce success.